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Blancpain Dive Watches

A few weeks ago, we took a look at the Alpina Seastrong Diver Heritage watch, a vintage-inspired “super compressor” diving watch that has, accompanying with a few other pieces in the brand’s growing collection, continued to garner Alpina a large amount of attention from media and consumers alike.

The watch world received something of a shock last year: the Swiss reported their first downturn since the blackness that was 2009.

Admittedly, it amounts to a mere 3.3 per cent drop in export value – or 460,000 fewer watches leaving Switzerland than 2014’s mind-boggling 28.6 million – but for a sector rather taken by its own ability to defy the global financial crisis with spectacular year-on-year growth, it was a shock nonetheless.

While Rolex and Blancpain launched their first wristwatches for divers in the early 1950s they did, actually, create the archetype of the modern dive watch, because of the development of the quintessential rotating bezel. However, they did not invent the first watch used by divers.

If you are as much into dive watches as we are at DiveIntoWatches.com, last week’s WatchTime New York event offered at least 30 additional very good reasons to visit the show at Gotham Hall. And just in case you missed it, here is a comprehensive overview of what the sponsoring brands had on display (from A to Z):

Ball Watch Co. showed most of its current collection; among the brand’s comprehensive range of dive watches was the recently relaunched Skindiver II

If your plan was to spend less money this year on watches, probably you want to skip this article. Most mechanical dive watches are priced under $10,000 (although the iconic Rolex Deepsea, Sea-Dweller, and Submariner watches, as well as many Blancpain Fifty Fathoms models, might go for a bit more now), however there are several types of fascinating dive watches that go way beyond that.

While Rolex and Blancpain launched their first wristwatches for divers in the early 1950s they did, actually, create the archetype of the modern dive watch, on account of the development of the quintessential rotating bezel. But they did not invent the first watch used by divers.

Collectors love military watches. It's as simple as that. Naval dive watches, such as the Rolex Submariners used by the British Ministry of Defense and the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms watches used by the American Navy, are certainly the most collectable and fetch the highest prices.